PHIL HASTINGS

lake series

In August 2009, I experienced the devastating power that uncontrolled water can have as it destroyed homes and tossed lives into turmoil during the Silver Creek flood. For the duration of the disaster, the basic need for clean drinking water was one of the most pressing requirements of residents in my village.

"The Lake Series" uses the dichotomy of water as a foundation for four separate videos that explore elements of the human condition. Water can be intimate or expansive, life giving or life destroying. It is eternal, ephemeral, and in a constant state of change. The series uses each of the four elements, earth, wind, fire, and water as starting points for each video. Each work’s title is meant to be open-ended, its meaning malleable for the viewer while expressing a specific human characteristic that provides a starting point for consideration. The third film, Adrift, uses water as its foundation element and is in progress.

morphology series

The Morphology Series is fundamentally concerned with exploring liminal states using abstract and poetic forms. I create filmic manifestations of thresholds for the viewer to experience and explore. In each video, a wall of organic matter undulates, at times seductive or mesmerizing, often quickly changing to a frantic or nervous tick. This living, breathing matter becomes a proxy for the viewer’s own experience of standing at a threshold. Within these structures an orifice opens and closes through which a black void can be seen leading to regions unknown, and full of possibility, ripe for personal projection.

Much like genetic modification, I enter into the material at the most basic level, in my case, the pixel, and through manipulation transform and alter the original data to create something new while still retaining elements of the original. Often this transformation experience is a matter of exploration and testing to see what changes can be made and evaluating these outcomes. The more I push these results, the more removed the final imagery is from the original.

The original seed for the technical process used in this series became a collection of morphological studies of invented organisms.